All students at Oglethorpe University are encouraged to attain
academic and personal excellence through active engagement with and
initiative in their education. The University offers an honors
program for those students who demonstrate the potential and desire
to further challenge themselves intellectually, both within and
beyond the classroom setting.

The honors program allows
students the opportunity to forge closer relations with peers and faculty from
various disciplines who have different interests, but share a common
enthusiasm for learning, while developing their own interests and
initiative.

Students who complete the honors program will develop their own independent project, while learning how their interests relate to relevant disciplinary discourse, other academic disciplines and the world beyond academia. A successful honors program student will:
1. Learn to analyze academic resources and understand methods of clear and accurate written and oral communication that are consistent with general standards across academic disciplines.
2. Collaborate with faculty and peers to reason through academic questions.
3. Demonstrate competency in discipline-specific writing through a creative work or scholarly academic research project.

Students are invited to learn about the features and
requirements of the honors program through the first-semester HON 101 seminars as well as through other informational
programs. Interested students should then apply for admission to the
program as early as the end of their freshman year and no later than
the end of their sophomore year. Applications should be submitted to the director of the honors program.

Students enrolled in the honors program receive priority
registration as well as the possibility of applying for funds to
facilitate thesis research the summer prior to their senior year.
Academic honors earned through the honors program are recognized at
commencement exercises, on the studentís diploma and on the
studentís transcript of grades. The honors program includes requirements that are currently available only during daytime hours. Evening students who have questions about the honors program should contact the director of the honors program.

The ultimate goal of the honors program experience is to complete and defend an honors thesis under the direction of a faculty supervisor and reading committee. Students are encouraged to submit their theses to appropriate competitions or for publication. Students are also required to present their thesis research/project at the annual Symposium in the Liberal Arts and Sciences. The honors program provides students an enhanced structure in which to develop confidence in their abilities to understand and discuss complex ideas and texts as well as to engage in problem solving and research design. Honors program graduates are particularly prepared to pursue graduate study.

3. Additional requirements and things to note:
a. Students must apply and be accepted into the honors program before enrolling for HON 201.
b. The two semesters of HON 201 are meant to be taken during a student’s freshman and sophomore years. Those who enter the honors program later in their academic careers must still complete both semesters of HON 201.
c. A cumulative grade-point average of 3.3 is required to participate in the two required HON 201 courses.
d. HON 301 is to be taken the fall semester of the student’s junior year. Students must receive the grade of Satisfactory (“S”) in HON 301 in order to continue in the honors program.
e. Each student of the honors program must secure a faculty mentor to supervise his/her thesis project by the beginning of the junior year. It is each student’s responsibility to establish a reading committee chair in order to fulfill the scholarship requirement for the honors program.
f. HON 302 is to be taken the spring semester of the student’s junior year. The course will culminate in an honors thesis prospectus approved by one primary and two secondary faculty readers.
g. HON 401 is to be taken the fall semester of the student’s senior year. A first draft of the thesis must be submitted to the student’s reading committee by the end of this semester.
h. HON 402 is to be taken the spring semester of the student’s senior year. The final draft of the thesis is presented to the reading committee at least one week prior to the end of classes, and
at the reading committee’s discretion the student will be asked to make a formal defense of the thesis. Students are also required to present their thesis research/project at the annual Symposium in the Liberal Arts and Sciences.
i. The faculty supervisor, in consultation with the reading committee and the program director, determines whether honors are to be awarded by the first day of the final examination period in the spring of the student’s senior year.
j. To enroll in HON 301, HON 302, HON 401 and HON 402, students must continuously maintain a cumulative grade-point average of 3.3, with a 3.5 cumulative grade-point average required in the academic field in which the honors research is anchored.